Will LM Abandon P3D/MS ESP Development?

[him225 51]

Is it also possible that somewhere down the line LM get fedup and abandon p3d/MS esp development due to never ending and impossible/too consuming  to fix issues? There must be a limited commitment to how much they want to modify the ESP, else by now they might also have reached an fs11/12isk level of improvement.

[Virtpilot 150]

Is it also possible that somewhere down the line LM get fedup and abandon p3d/MS esp development due to never ending and impossible/too consuming  to fix issues? There must be a limited commitment to how much they want to modify the ESP, else by now they might also have reached an fs11/12isk level of improvement.

I was just thinking that also. Oh boy those programmers and engineers at LM who are working with P3D got to have a thick skin and a good self-confidence. Because no matter how well they are doing their job, customers are NEVER happy  :smile:  . Huh! What a place to do your job... I got no other complains but the clouds, should that to be fixed, P3D would be perfect.

[JacquesBrel 639]

Is it also possible that somewhere down the line LM get fedup and abandon p3d/MS esp development due to never ending and impossible/too consuming  to fix issues? There must be a limited commitment to how much they want to modify the ESP, else by now they might also have reached an fs11/12isk level of improvement.

 

Abandoning an existing software engine/platform in favour of another is of course always a possibility. But is is a huge undertaking that you would only decide to do if the existing platform has become so constraining and time-consuming to fix and build upon, that it would take less time and money to scrap it and replace it with another platform. In the case of flight simulators, there aren't a whole lot of other platforms on the market to choose from, so the choice would be more or less "Should we keep working on ESP, or should we bin it and build our own platform from scratch?" And of course the company's financial people would need some pretty convincing arguments to give the go-ahead for building an entirely new platform.

[Guest]

Is it also possible that somewhere down the line LM get fedup and abandon p3d/MS esp development due to never ending and impossible/too consuming  to fix issues? There must be a limited commitment to how much they want to modify the ESP, else by now they might also have reached an fs11/12isk level of improvement.

 

 

Possibly. But why do you ask? If they stop working on P3D we can keep on using the latest version just like we used FSX for years and years without support. At least things will be a lot better then they were before P3D. (However, if LM also takes the activation servers offline, there could be a problem...  :wink: )

[Dominique_K 10,133]

Is it also possible that somewhere down the line LM get fedup and abandon p3d/MS esp development due to never ending and impossible/too consuming  to fix issues? There must be a limited commitment to how much they want to modify the ESP, else by now they might also have reached an fs11/12isk level of improvement.

I always thought a little surprising that LM would invest in this. I am glad they did but I wouldn't surprised if they'd pull the plug someday or sell it.  The last product iteration would still be with us and I suppose that they would have the legal obligation to keep their activation servers open.

[mwilk 1,100]

LM tapped into a large beta testing group (US) when they decided to create P3D. We're not their target customer but we do provide a valuable service. Could they stop development? Absolutely. They'll keep supporting P3D right until the day it's no longer profitable.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

I always thought a little surprising that LM would invest in this. I am glad they did but I wouldn't surprised if they'd pull the plug someday or sell it. The last product iteration would still be with us and I suppose that they would have the legal obligation to keep their activation servers open.

If you find it surprising, then you are misjudging all big corporations' interest in both simulation modeling and automation. It's THE growth industry today. Any company that doesn't have at least one foot dipped in the waters of AI and VR is probably still making horseshoes and mustache wax.

 

Manned military combat is fading away. In its place will be armed forces composed entirely of remotely controlled drone aircraft, ships and vehicles. It's no different than other other industry.

 

LM may eventually stop development of the public version of its flight simulator, but why should they? It's good PR and besides they get paid for it. What a deal! BTW, it's just as likely that Intel will stop making the guts of desktop PCs. Or that Laminar will lose its patent troll lawsuit and go broke. I'm not gonna worry about these things.

[Dominique_K 10,133]

If you find it surprising, then you are misjudging all big corporations' interest in both simulation modeling and automation. It's THE growth industry today. Any company that doesn't have at least one foot dipped in the waters of AI and VR is probably still making horseshoes and mustache wax.

 

Manned military combat is fading away. In its place will be armed forces composed entirely of remotely controlled drone aircraft, ships and vehicles. It's no different than other other industry.

 

LM may eventually stop development of the public version of its flight simulator, but why should they? It's good PR and besides they get paid for it. What a deal! BTW, it's just as likely that Intel will stop making the guts of desktop PCs. Or that Laminar will lose its patent troll lawsuit and go broke. I'm not gonna worry about these things.

 

I was surprised, Jay, you cannot help. It comes like that. You are surprised.

 

LM is, of course, certainly highly keen to be a major player in the simulation/ VR industry for the whole battlefield. Tell me something I don't know :smile: .

 

Why should they work with the ESP is a little mystifying to me though. They have immense intellectual resources available to them, corporate and outside (DARPA, universities etc.), in artificial intelligence, remote flying etc. Maybe the decade old ESP has more potential than I thought ? Maybe it is a piece of a larger puzzle ?

 

Why would they bother with the consumers market also ? Not exactly the profitability profile they are used to and, in the US at least, a source of petty legal nuisances. As for the PR, how many US and Allies Congressmen, MPs, MoDs are simmers ?

 

One last thing, it wouln't be the first time, that a major corporation invests a little money to see and then pull out. I hope not...

[Guest]

Is it also possible that somewhere down the line LM get fedup and abandon p3d/MS esp development due to never ending and impossible/too consuming  to fix issues?

 

No that's not possible.

 

If you are having issues AVSIM has several guides to resolve and/or work around issues.

 

P3D Guide

CTD Guide

Tips and Tricks Forum

How to Update P3D

 

If your issues are with a (or some) 3rd party products then I'd recommend you contact the 3rd party developer(s).

 

Everything else in this thread is entirely conjecture to what end such conjecture might serve I have no idea?  LM's development of P3D continues and as usual NDA's prevent any further information on what will be happening next with P3D.

 

Now if you want to encourage rather than discourage development of P3D and add-ons, then a positive note would be considerably more effective than a repeated negative notes where solutions already exist.

 

Cheers, Rob.

[GSalden 4,650]

Myself I do not think that LM will abandon P3D 32 bit development.

Somewhere in the future their might be a 64 bit version .

 

Lucky me I do not suffer from OOMs and am enjoying v3.4, like earlier versions, to the fullest.

[virtualstuff 750]

Myself I do not think that LM will abandon P3D 32 bit development.

Somewhere in the future their might be a 64 bit version .

 

Lucky me I do not suffer from OOMs and am enjoying v3.4, like earlier versions, to the fullest.

 

Same here :-)

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

Jay nailed it.

 

The cost of real world operations for training are exponentially greater than the cost of simulators, and the military and several (numerous) different commercial sectors embraced using simulators many years ago.

 

If one were to develop a new flight simulator as diverse and capable as the ESP family, it would take them years and a ton of money. It's important to remember that FSX was never developed from scratch, it was built on many years of releases of flight simulators by the ACES Team.

 

Anyway, the above why Lockheed Martin used ESP for P3D and why Dovetail Games used it for their upcoming / new flight simulator.  Their changing things, sure! 

 

My very best wishes.

[Marinechf 3]

I don't think LM is going to abandon ESP/ p3d quite yet. It is an old platform engine but with companies like orbx, carenado, Lionheart and others, p3d can look, and feel pretty amazing. I would love to see them adopt a new engine that is not so cpu constrained but it is what it is. Even if they bring dx12 over I still can't see getting his amazing jump in fps, the cpu limits are the problem. Don't quote me though I would love to be pleasantly surprised. Also if we see the abandonment of p3d and we are getting fed up with what we have. Xplane is looking more amazing every release and now with aerofly 2 from ipacs that looks and performs absolutely amazing we do have a little bit of options.

 

PS I strongly recommend an oculus rift if you can afford it. It has changed my simulator experience is the most positive way. If you can look past the lower resolution it is so worth it. I can not fly without it anymore. Aerofly2 also looks phenomenal on the rift.

[kakusso 12]

What a strange question. It sounds like; will we abandon cars because off all the accidents that occur everyday?

[shivers9 1,174]

Is it also possible that somewhere down the line LM get fedup and abandon p3d/MS esp development due to never ending and impossible/too consuming  to fix issues? There must be a limited commitment to how much they want to modify the ESP, else by now they might also have reached an fs11/12isk level of improvement.

May I recommend that you take some time and look at the LM Corp website. Look at the type research they are doing. Most of their future is based on Flight, either airplanes, drones or space Flight. Then there is weather, Army tanks and other delights of future war, Then their is Disaster Management and crowd control. I am sure I am leaving out many, but all these things need simulators for research and training. People just have to understand that LM does not do all this so that you and I can pretend to be 747 pilots. :p0503: